GEOFF
NELSONFinding a Way Through the Song
On restraint, post-rock, long walks with demos, Tsadig, Valley Taylor, and the intimate connection of playing guitar without saying a word.
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Geoff Nelson approaches music by listening for the space that hasn’t been filled yet. His path runs from childhood guitar lessons and college post-rock recordings through Tsadig and into Valley Taylor, where a nearly finished song becomes a different kind of challenge: finding a way inside without overpowering what is already there.
It’s been a while since you first heard it, but what was your first impression of One Hundred Billion Points of Light?
It’s been a while since I first heard it, but I haven’t heard a song from Valley that I don’t like or have to force myself to write on.
I usually feel a mix of excitement to find something inside the song I can add, and also of dread at knowing that I could be sitting with this one song for weeks trying to plot my way through it.
But that whole process makes it worth it to me, like hiking a mountain. It can be frustrating, but you get to the end and see something beautiful.
When you’re working on a Valley Taylor song, what are you looking for when you’re trying to find your way into it? How do you decide what the song needs from you?
I always ask that like a mantra during writing. I may try to write something that pushes me technically, but it may not serve the song. So I have to step back and listen a lot.
Taking demos on long walks is really helpful.
What happens on those long walks? Are you actively thinking about the song and imagining parts, or is it more about listening until something starts to reveal itself?
There’s both. One block I may be thinking about other things with the song in the backdrop, and the next block I may get an idea and explore that.
Even if I don’t find any ideas, I become more familiar with the song in its details.
As you became more familiar with One Hundred Billion Points of Light, what details or qualities in the songs started standing out to you?
I kept coming back to doing something simple. To find a vibe and a pattern to stick to and let the songs shine.
They are pretty short and concise songs.
How did you first start playing guitar? Was there a particular person, band, or moment that made you want to pick one up?
My parents told me I had to learn an instrument, so I chose guitar. In 4th grade I would go in this guy’s basement and learn songs like the old Batman song. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dum, Batman!
Then I started lessons from a guitar shop in 6th grade from a guy whose favorite band was Staind. He taught me “Stairway to Heaven.” But he flaked on me, so I got to learn from the other teacher in that shop, Andy McKee, who ended up being a solo acoustic legend. I only wanted to learn pop punk songs from him though, so now I feel like I squandered that opportunity.
I played in a middle school pop punk cover band, but all through high school I never played much, just occasionally at church. During college, I started recording myself and using guitar as a way to express myself.
When you started recording yourself in college, what kind of music were you trying to make?
Post-rock.
Before Valley Taylor, you spent years playing with Tsadig. How did you first become involved with that project, and what did playing in that band teach you as a guitarist?
I met Zul at a Mongolian church in LA. He had a cover band and asked me to join him. We played some shows as a cover band and then as our band with originals called Return, and then later we started doing folky stuff with Tsadig.
That experience taught me how fun it is to play live and also how hard it is to record.
What was it about recording with Tsadig that made you realize how difficult recording could be?
I think capturing the sound I envisioned without hawking over so much money in a studio was difficult.
Has the way you think about recording changed since then? When you worked on One Hundred Billion Points of Light, did you still feel that tension between the sound you imagined and what you could realistically capture?
I use DI now!
Valley does so much of the work. All I do is guitars, and that makes things pretty low stress.
Does having that freedom—where your main responsibility is the guitar—change the way you approach your parts creatively?
In Tsadig, I would have a more blank canvas to work with. With Valley Taylor, the song is there and I have to find my way through.
Each has its own challenges.
Which of those challenges do you think has taught you more about yourself as a musician: building from a blank canvas, or finding your place inside something that already exists?
Maybe these are like different parts of the brain.
Coming up with something and refining it, like chiseling out a bust. Or playing alongside a song, adding more depth and color to it while not overpowering or distracting from the song itself.
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GEOFF NELSON
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it out...
Who are some of the guitarists or musicians who shaped the way you think about playing? Have those influences changed much over the years?
Taka from the band Mono, and the two guys who make up Hammock. With Tsadig I drew more reference from The Contortionist.
I guess it depends on what kind of song I’m playing.
Do you feel like you have a recognizable style of your own at this point? What makes a guitar part feel like something you would play?
I use a lot of reverb/delay and, when in doubt, I tremolo pick.
You mentioned that Tsadig taught you how fun playing live could be. What is it about performing that you enjoy that you don’t get from writing or recording?
I can have this intimate connection and communicate to people without saying a word.
Is there a particular show you’ve played that still stands out to you, either with Tsadig or Valley Taylor?
With Valley, that show in Sac that has two venues in one, the one where we played downstairs.
With Tsadig, playing at that venue in the Richmond neighborhood of SF. I can’t remember names.
What made those two shows stand out to you?
Playing guitar live also feels very spiritual, like worship. Those times felt seamlessly connected to that energy.
“I can have this intimate connection and communicate to people without saying a word.”
After playing music for this long and across such different projects, what still makes you excited to pick up a guitar?
I have a hard time with words, and being able to speak without speaking is good for me.
I also have a hard time finding music to listen to, so making music I want to listen to is time well spent.
What kind of music are you interested in making next? Is there anything you haven’t had the chance to explore yet that you’d like to?
Doing things like unique rhythms and progressions in a song that you don’t notice because the song flows so well.
Also, power chords and palm mutes would be fun to play live.
When you imagine the ideal show to play, what does it feel like—from the room and the audience to the kind of music you’re playing?
I imagine a dark room full of people with moody lights.
I want to play a set that feels like a journey, like a play from beginning to end, never breaking character, having the energy rise and fall but never completely die until the lights come on.
What have you been listening to lately?
Russian Circles, This Will Destroy You, Saxon Shore.
Nothing new.
IN ORBIT: GEOFF NELSON
A playlist moving through Geoff Nelson’s listening, influences, and musical orbit.